CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

Tell us your ongoing tales and experiences with your French car here. Post pictures of your car here as well.
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CitroJim
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Unread post by CitroJim »

Featch wrote:Working fine in Firefox now Jim.
Brilliant :D Thanks Andy!

And it's even Ok on a mobile device Xac! I am surprised it comes up OK on a little screen :shock:

Now to write the Pug 206 cambelt job...
Jim

Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
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Unread post by superloopy »

CitroJim wrote:
Featch wrote:Working fine in Firefox now Jim.

Now to write the Pug 206 cambelt job...
Yay :D, Xmas all round for me then :wink:

Means i can get a slot planned for the missus' Xsara :)
Mike

Xantia Activa Dante Red MK1 (96) 121k - SORN, to be broken
Xantia Activa Silex Grey MK2 (98) 120k -SORN, ditto
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Unread post by xantia_v6 »

Xac wrote: looks good under opera mobile 10 on my phone jim :-)
I just tried Opera Mobile 10.2, (the previous versions would not run properly on my E51)
This one seems to navigate OK. and Jims' new site looks fine, (as it does in the default Nokia browser), but trying to edit a FCF quote in Opera Mobile, it goes a bit berserk, and keeps duplicating the last line of the post, and if you try to delete a duplicate line, it adds 2 more :shock:
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Unread post by Xaccers »

xantia_v6 wrote:
Xac wrote: looks good under opera mobile 10 on my phone jim :-)
I just tried Opera Mobile 10.2, (the previous versions would not run properly on my E51)
This one seems to navigate OK. and Jims' new site looks fine, (as it does in the default Nokia browser), but trying to edit a FCF quote in Opera Mobile, it goes a bit berserk, and keeps duplicating the last line of the post, and if you try to delete a duplicate line, it adds 2 more :shock:
Funny you should mention that, on my HTC Touch HD, if I use T9 it starts typing then jumps up to within the quoted text and overwrites some of it.
Not a huge problem as I normally type letter by letter using the excellent onscreen landscape keyboard.
The only other issue is when I select Done after typing my reply, to return to page scrolling mode, upon selecting submit, it returns to editing the text, and going through the process again (ie Done then submit) often results in the forum complaining about posting too soon before my last submission.
Oh and the screen doesn't auto rotate when I turn the phone to landscape unlike Opera 9. There are a few other sites which work with 9 and not 10 (such as the trainline.com) so although in many ways it's an improvement, it's still lacking in others.
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CitroJim
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Unread post by CitroJim »

Xac wrote:often results in the forum complaining about posting too soon before my last submission.
That's the forum flood control coming in to play Xac. never used to happen on the old forum as it was never fast enough! I often hit it when I edit one of my own posts as soon as I spot an error in it.

I have the gravest of respect for all of you who use these handhelds for the forum. It's as much as I can do to send a text message, let alone read and post on a forum :twisted:

Today, I have completed my web work and now have workable homepages on both eastment.net and xantiav6.co.uk. I've also written and published a guide to changing the cambelt on a Pug 206 here.. The pages were written using my homepage as a template and it proved remarkably quick to do. It won't take long in future now to publish a new article :D At least the pages have not got to be created from scratch each time as was the case previously.

Grateful for any feedback on the 206 article and the ease (or otherwise) of following it and navigating around it.

I've also (finally) got avatars working properly on this forum so any member can now upload an avatar properly to the forum rather than having to host it off-site. next job will be to remove those now redundant "e-car Insurance" banners from the forum. They may have sponsored us once but no longer as far as I know.

I'm planning to upgrade this forum and the BXC to phpBB3 at some point in the future but before I do so, I want to get some experience with phpBB3, play with its appearance and to determine how proof it is against spammers and the like.

I made a quite surprising discovery today. I did a Google search for Xantia V6 articles (mainly to see if xantiav6.co.uk figured in the searches yet) and so far I've not found any forums specifically dedicated to the V6. I know I said I wouldn't but I have now created a small phpBB3-based forum up on xantiav6.co.uk to firstly correct that omission, to act as an ongoing test platform for phpBB3 and as a method to guide V6 owners toward the FCF who may not have been aware of the FCF and it's content. To that end I have tried to carefully construct the meta tags (read by search engines) to catch as many V6 searches as possible.

The forum is here and I'd be grateful if people would like to register, log in and post. I'm particularly interested to know how easy people find registering on the site as the CAPTCHA authentication is a bit tough. It's supposed to defeat spambots but it may defeat a few humans too I fear. Try it! Feedback will be valuable as it will help me tweak the CAPTCHA settings for use eventually on the BXC and FCF.

The Xantia V6 forum is going to be specifically V6 technical and nothing else. Any general Xantia questions will be referred straight to this forum; it's not a competitor, rather more a complement to the FCF.

That's it for sitting at my PC for a while. Back to the spanners as soon as possible now. Hopefully tomorrow will be good for outdoor work and then on Tuesday I'm back to work. Christmas has really flown by this year :D
Jim

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Unread post by vince »

Tried to log onto the v6 forum Jim but the confirmation code part is very hard to read (my eyes arent that bad) :lol:

I failed it 3 times so have given up for now :?
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Unread post by DickieG »

V6 forum registering worked for me :D
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Unread post by XantiaMan »

How about having just a Xantia forum with V6 and Activa sub forums? The old Activa forum no longer works and within a period of time, most would migrate there. I am basing this on the fact that 95% of stuff on this forum relates to Xantia only.
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Unread post by CitroJim »

Vince, sorry :oops: I'll tone the CAPTCHA down a bit and make it a tad easier to decode :)

Good to see you successfully registered Richard :D How may attempts and CAPTCHA refreshes did it take?

Oh dear! I've just looked at Activanet and it looks like the FCF has killed it practically dead :oops:

Because that forum exits Gareth, it would be wrong to establish another one. Anyone logging on to Activanet is made quite aware that most Activa owners can be found on the FCF.

Fact is, the FCF is, de facto, the home of Xantia owners and that fact is very much established and has been for many years. Search engines bring up the FCF very frequently in connection with Xantia issues.

Establishing a new general Xantia forum would be next to impossible. A few years back, when the FCF was nearly dead on its feet (before I became involved with sorting it out) a Xantia forum was created and ran for a while but as soon as the FCF was back in good order it died.

One reason behind the creation of the Xantia V6 forum, apart from the fact that one did not exist previously, is for a small investment in the future. As time goes on, the Xantia will become rarer and rarer, especially the V6 (and Activa) and the FCF will increasingly shift its focus to newer models. Whilst it is pretty much Xantia dominated now, give it a few years and it'll be dominated by C series posts; it has already happened - years back it was dominated by BX and XM stuff. Both models (along with GS, CX, DS and so on) now have their own very narrow and specialist forums. I've just created a narrow and specialist forum that can very slowly establish itself ready for the time when those cars are very rare indeed and the general FCF will not be very knowledgeable of them. It takes quite a while for the search engines to recognise them and for the web page meta tags to be properly crafted to get them high in the search engine rankings.

If an Activa forum did not exist then maybe I'd consider creating one but whilst Activanet still lives I won't. They were there first, they have the "territory" and it is well enough known.

In years to come a specialist Xantia forum (that covers all models) may be required but not now, the knowledge-base is there on the FCF and to create another Xantia forum right now risks diluting that and confusing people who search for what they need. To that end, I already point visitors to Xantia V6 very clearly in the direction of the FCF for general Xantia stuff; just as Activanet has done (unwittingly maybe) for Activa people.
Jim

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Unread post by XantiaMan »

http://forum.activanet.co.uk/

Every time i have tried the Activa forum in the past couple of months, its dead. The admin has no interest it in, and it had no new posts for weeks and weeks, because it has no 'heart', people use this forum because it has a friendly atmosphere unrivalled by any other forum on the internet. If this atmosphere was injected into a dedicated forum, it would work.

I dont think it would be wrong to establish a proper forum with real support on a real server, but thats just my opinion.

I established a forum for metro's, maestro's and montego's 5 years ago, whilst there was already a well established forum for Maestro's and to a lesser extent, Montego's.

It has over 3000 registered users and still gets used regularly. People said it wouldnt work, but i focused on the MG variants, restoration and improvements and it worked. You now have two forums that have their merits.


Don't rule it out completely, i think it would be a missed opportunity to have a dedicated Xantia forum, but at the end of the day, its up to the people that use a forum to decide.
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Unread post by xantia_v6 »

I don't know if you have changed the CAPTCHA settings yet, but I refreshed a few times to see what they are like, and about 75% were really too difficult to decipher, mainly due to the choice of background/foreground colours (and I am only very slightly colour blind).

BTW, on your 206 cambelt pages, they would be significantly improved by navigation links at the bottom of each page. I would also suggest slightly bolder arrows on your annotated pictures.

I must try to think of something to populate the V6 forum with...
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Unread post by CitroJim »

Good food for thought Gareth :D Thanks!

Activanet is not actually dead as it is available here on the "old" address. Interestingly, there was a post on Activanet about someone taking ownership of the domain and then the forum having to negotiate it back. I've just carried out a "whois" lookup and the domain is still registered to Andy C (the forum owner) but there is no DNS response so the domain is not registered in DNS anywhere. Odd.

Here's the result of the Whois lookup....

Domain name:
activanet.co.uk

Registrant:
Andrew C (rest of name edited)

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

Registrar:
LCN.com Ltd [Tag = LCN]
URL: http://www.lcn.com

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 28-Sep-2008
Renewal date: 28-Sep-2010
Last updated: 14-Oct-2009

Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.
xantia_v6 wrote: I don't know if you have changed the CAPTCHA settings yet, but I refreshed a few times to see what they are like, and about 75% were really too difficult to decipher
Not yet Mike. I'll advise when I do as 75% is a bit too much of a failure rate!

Thanks for the comments on the 206 pages :D
Jim

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CitroJim
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Unread post by CitroJim »

I've toned down the CAPTCHA on the V6 Forum. It looks a bit easier now... Give it a try and let me know....

Today has been an excellent day :D Despite the cold I've been out spannering and got some useful V6 breaking done. Thoroughly enjoyed working in the sunshine, even if it was teetering around freezing.

I made a strange discovery. My hands get colder when wearing nitrile medical gloves than they do if I work in bare hands. I don't understand that one at all :?

Owen (trooper30) came to visit today for a Lexia session on his rather tidy S2 Exclusive Auto. We did that and then found the suspension is not quite as good as it should be. The rear spheres are a bit low by the feel of it and the accumulator is as flat as a pancake. It was a good afternoon of talking Xantia and a bit of tuition on hydractive suspension. We rounded off the session with a quick spin in my V6 to give Owen a bit of a benchmark of how hydractive suspension should feel.

Then, no sooner than Owen had left, Xac called and asked if we could do an emergency panel lamp replacement on his Activa. His instruments were in almost total darkness :roll: We found 7 of the display illumination bulbs blown, along with the clock bulb...

I think Xac now sees sees his instrument panel in a whole new light...
Jim

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Unread post by Citroenmad »

Odd that Jim, ive been having that problem with gloves today too. Though ive found putting a thin pair of wool gloves under the white medical gloves really help! Its been -2 nearly all day today, im still frozen now after being out in it all day.

A nice Xantia related day yuou seen to have had Jim :)
Chris
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CitroJim
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Unread post by CitroJim »

Here we are, new years eve and the end of 2009 in sight. It's shot by in the blinking of an eye :roll:

It's been generally a good year with some real achievements :D

Nothing very constructive done on the car front this week as I've been been back to work for three days. There I've managed to close 2009 off tidily so that 2010 can start pretty much afresh with not much 2009 legacy!

I've been playing again with HTML to try and improve the looks of my websites. I've made some experimental changes on my Xantia V6 Website

Grateful if you can take a look and comment please. Look too at the new pages on V6 Engine Removal. No, I've not decided to write my web pages in Latin :lol: That's just filler text called "Loren Ipsum" and used to judge page layouts..

I'm keen to get a good basic layout before writing too much and then having to re-write it as my layouts change...

Happy New Year Everybody and may 2010 be a good 'un :D

I won't be seeing in New Year this year as I have to run down to Somerset in the morning on a semi-emergency mission so it's early to bed for me...
Jim

Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...